Follow the Leader: Inspired many similar books.The Film of the Book: Quite a few in fact.Of course, it helps that, being a Shetland pony, he's pretty much child-sized. Friend to All Children: Merrylegs the pony is specifically cited as being this.Earn Your Happy Ending: You're damn right that horse has to earn his happy ending.

Defrosting Ice Queen: A rare live action example with animals: Ginger.

Combine with Beauty seeing her dead body, hoping her pain is finally at an end, and the ending with him dreaming about the days the two were together, along with Merrylegs. Ginger however continues to suffer under one cruel owner after the other, ultimately killing her.

Bittersweet Ending: Beauty ends up in a good home with the promise of never being sold again.

Ginger gets a bit of an introduction like this but Beauty is attracted to her immediately. Her first scene is her having the bearing reign tightened over the horses, stating 'they're not fit to be seen'.

Bitch Alert: Lady Wexmere in the 1994 film.

Laws were changed, including those which eased financial strains on cabdrivers, which led to better treatment of the horses.

It's still used as a piece of safety equipment (to keep the reins from getting tangled) but is never tightened as much as it once was.

There came a major outpouring of concern about animal welfare.

Giving particular weight to the moral was that if religion did not teach people to be kind to animals, it was a sham (remember, this was read by Victorian Britons).

Author Tract: The original purpose of the novel was to get people to be a little more conscious about the way they treated animals.

Artistic License Animal Care: Only in-universe for example, Beauty is nearly killed by a groom who gives him cold water and leaves him standing uncovered in his stall after a strenuous effort.

Animated Adaptation: Courtesy of Goodtimes.Animal Stereotypes: Black Beauty fits the horse stereotype to a T.Once you get past the fact that the horse is narrating his own life story, Beauty largely behaves like a normal horse - for instance, being too terrified to leave a burning barn until he's blindfolded and led out. Amplified Animal Aptitude: Mostly averted.All Girls Like Ponies: Many of the film versions like to throw this in there.

(Not to mention that David Thewlis as Jerry Barker is some of the best casting in film history.) Adaptation Distillation: While not getting everything right (and cutting the dialogue for all of the animals besides Beauty), the 1994 movie starring David Thewlis is the best of the film versions.

Black beauty his grooms and companions